The newly-formed Pegida Ireland announced its launch would take place at 3pm in front of the GPO. A counter-demonstration was then organised for 1.30pm by European Network Against Racism, Ireland (ENAR) together with dozens of anti-racism and Islamic groups.

The peaceful counter-demonstration, attended by several hundred people, was addressed by People Before Profit TD Bríd Smith and Chair Of The Irish Muslim Peace and Intergration Council Shaykh Dr Umar Al Qadri.

Al Qadri told the crowd that when his son had heard of the anti-racism demonstration, he had said he was "proud to be Irish." He also stressed that extremist groups like Isis are not representative of Muslims.

"1.6 billion Muslims do not support Isis or Al Qaeda... 1.6 billion Muslims are not terrorists," he said.

“What we had to day was a show of strength in numbers from the majority of people in Ireland... all speaking with one voice, resoundingly rejecting the language of hate.”

“This broad, nonviolent, festive and enthusiastic turnout demonstrated very loudly that there is no appetite in Ireland for the politics of Islamaphobia and bigotry.

He distanced ENAR from the skirmish outside the rally, but acknowledged that such occurrences "invariably accompany the Pegida phenomenon."

Pegida, which stands for 'Patriotic Europeans against the Islamisation of the Occident,' was founded in Germany in 2014 to oppose immigration, particularly from Muslim nations. Widely accused of racism and fascism, it operates in a number of European countries.

Today's rally in Dublin was part of a wider day of action across the continent, which saw similar scenes in Dresden, Calais and Birmingham.

06/02/2016. Anti-racism rally at GPO. Pictured Chair Of The Irish Muslim Peace and Intergration Council Shaykh Dr Umar Al Qadri addessing the Anti-racism rally at GPO who gathered to oppose Pegida Ireland who are against a supposed islamlification of Europe (RollingNews/Sam Boal)